The promise of improved cancer therapy has been one of the driving forces for cell death research over the past decade. There is growing evidence that many of the molecular and cellular changes that occur in cancer development diminish the ability of cells to undergo apoptosis and that resistance to apoptosis causes drug resistance. On the other hand, many studies have demonstrated that apoptosis is a frequent outcome of effective anticancer therapy. Therefore, developing and screening novel anticancer drugs that target apoptosis pathways have received increasing attention in the past few years. Identification of novel compounds and drug targets involved in apoptosis regulation is still a major roadblock to anticancer drug development due to the lack of a high throughput apoptotic screening system which can systematically measure dynamic expression of multiple proteins and genes as well as enzyme activities in real time in intact cells from multiple stimuli.
Cell cultures are often grown in the lab to assist in measuring the effectiveness of an anticancer drug. For example, colonies of cancer cells can be grown from cells that were removed from a patient. A variety of drugs may be tested for activity against these particular cancer cells. Conventionally, these colonies are grown in suspension or in two-dimensional arrays. This environment does not adequately mimic the native environment of the cancer cell when it was within the patient. This environmental change can impose phenotypic changes in the resulting colony of cancer cells that may, in some instances, alter the responsiveness of the colony to anti-cancer agents.
Some attempts have been made to produced three-dimensional cell arrays but these have not proven entirely satisfactory. Therefore, an improved device and method for growing cells is desired.